In the staging lane

[Deuce]

Hello!
I've been "lurking" on here for quite a few months and thought I should probably finally give an introduction along with my project plans

When I was young I was lucky enough to go to a daycare where the husband was an arcade repairman so my love arcade machines were en-grained in me from the start. I've wanted an arcade machine for years and now finally have the space to have one and after many frustrating and unsuccessful attempts to get one of craigslist I've decided to build my own. I'm an auto tech by trade so the wiring and electronics don't scare me much but the woodworking and artwork might be a challenge. Since its winter here in Minnesota it's hide indoor time so I should have plenty of time to devote to getting this done.

My project is still in the planning stages as I ideally would like to measure twice cut once. I originally was going to copy a machine that I thought was amazing but after finding and then diving down the rabbit hole of this site there was so many different designs that I loved I wanted to borrow some of the aspects I like while putting my spin on things.

For my un-named project I have an old 37" lcd tv that was laying around for the display. I have an old gaming computer I built in 04 and am a little worried it wont be able to handle the task. It's an amd athlon 64 2800+ 1.8ghz, 512mb ram, navida  fx5700 256mb, 80GB hard drive and 420w power supply. I'm thinking even the cheapest core 2 duo from arrow will be a better bet 

The control panel is the thing that is giving me the most headaches, I haven't been able to decide 2 or 4 player and with or without trackball. I have 2 5year old daughters and another child on the way so I'm leaning towards 4 player plus my cab is going to be pretty wide to fit the display.
I already ordered a handful of buttons from Groovy Gamer Gear and Paradise Arcade to test the different feel and look of the button styles plus the varying weights and sounds of the micro-switches. I've also tried a few different layouts and made a test panel to see how they felt on my hand and ask my friends what they thought (most thought i was way over thinking things)
I'm also kicking around with going rgb led lit buttons with NephRings™

I'm pretty up in the air over joysticks, I'm leaning towards u360's for nfl blitz nba jam because I guess they originally had analog?
For the encoder I'm thinking of just getting a couple of Minimus AVR's or use the inputs available on the u360's if I go that way

The inspiration for my cab design cues are borrowed from FLYNN'S ARCADE, Laminar's Slim LCD, charlieram's TTA Games build, and Space Paranoids (control panel) The cabinet will be mdf and hopefully I can find mdo for weight. I haven't made my panel layout yet because I've been concentrating on my cab shape. I've made probably 15 different designs on graph paper and quite a few miniature cardboard models. I just learned just enough skechup so far to make a couple side profiles which I'll try to include.

well that's enough giant walls of txt for now 

 let me know what you guys think!

[yotsuya]

I've also tried a few different layouts and made a test panel to see how they felt on my hand and ask my friends what they thought (most thought i was way over thinking things)

Welcome, bud! That's a very telling statement. Remember to build the cab YOU want, not one to impress others. They might not care as much as you want them to! 

[Malenko]

I already ordered a handful of buttons from Groovy Gamer Gear and Paradise Arcade to test the different feel and look of the button styles plus the varying weights and sounds of the micro-switches. I've also tried a few different layouts and made a test panel to see how they felt on my hand.

You are sooooo far ahead of the curve already.

To answer a few of your questions :
I would get a newer PC from arrow, your old rig isn't completely useless, its worth getting an upgrade. Cost vs Worth
a 37" TV is about 32" wide, so a 4 player panel wouldn't be a terrible idea. I made a 4 player panel on my cab knowing that the majority of the time its just going to be only me playing it. Sounds as though you and yours could play a bunch of Simpsons, Turtles, Xmen, etc
Trackball..... how much do you love missile command, centipede, and golden tee?  For me the answer was "not enough" I'd go with a spinner before I got a trackball.
NFL Blitz used 49 ways, and NBA Jam used Happ 8way Supers or Competitions. NBA Showtime however, also used 49 ways.
If you're going to get an encoder just for mame, I'd suggest an IPAC4 over anything else.

[AzureKnight]

I've also tried a few different layouts and made a test panel to see how they felt on my hand and ask my friends what they thought (most thought i was way over thinking things)

I believe that is half the point of this site 

Welcome to the club, good luck with your build.  As someone who also over thinks things...I know for myself, I feel a slight tug towards one option over another, then I over analyze the heck out of it and nine times out of ten end up back where I started.  I try to listen to that tug more often.

[birchyman]

Your old computer isnt useless - if you upgrade the RAM a bit it would be fine to run MAME and a few other emulators. It will struggle when you start getting into N64, PSX, or PC games such as Street Fighter etc.

I have almost finished my build (yet to make a post, will do soon) - and I went with u360's + encoder for the buttons (i wanted more buttons than the u360 would support).

All in all, the setup works excellent. Only 2 frustrations im having currently, however they may not impact you depending on how you plan to use the cab:

- The U360 isnt the best for fighting games (street fighter, etc - not counting beat-em-ups in this, they work fine). This is due to the large amount of throw that the u360 has and the reletively weak spring back (even with the upgraded spring). That being said, its absolutely awesome for everything else. Definately get the 4/8 way switcher.

- Having the controls split between the u360 (which is read as a joystick) and the IPAC (which is a keyboard encoder) makes it hard to map keys via programs like xpadder, etc for steam games specifically. Some of steam games use xbox360 controllers as standard (and you cant change the controls) - unfortunately finding a program to map keyboard strokes -> xbox360 input is difficult and I havent had any luck with that yet. However, if you mapped all the controls through the U360 then you could do this fine.

[Deuce]

Thank you all for the kind words and advise! I had been kicking around the panel forever and all I needed was a kick.

I've decided to do 4 players no trackball, I have an idea to do an attachable one but first I need to get everything else done first! I made some progress on skechup after tinkering with it some more, I wish I would have read some of the help articles on it instead of burning through 2 pads of graph paper    I attached a pic with the dimensions displayed.


 One Question I haven't read alot on, what angle of degrees is recommended to tilt the control panel? and is it easier to design the tilt where the panel bolts on or into the sides of the cp box?? I've seen both done



yotsuya: thank you for the greeting! I think they just want me to shut up about it and start cutting wood

Sounds as though you and yours could play a bunch of Simpsons, Turtles, Xmen, etc

   This is exactly why I started this project and just got distracted with all the amazing builds on here (love the open ice machine you did!)

Welcome to the club, good luck with your build.  As someone who also over thinks things...I know for myself, I feel a slight tug towards one option over another, then I over analyze the heck out of it and nine times out of ten end up back where I started.  I try to listen to that tug more often.

thanks and yes I have been doing that far too long, I'm hoping that posting this online will give me a push to make decisions faster and work out those final thoughts that keep me dragging my feet

birchyman: I'm going to get more horsepower in the cpu department but I'll keep the u360 stuff in mind because i think I'm going that route for at least 2 sticks

[Generic Eric]

The average cp angle is between 7 and 10 degrees.